


One smile like that

by siderokardias



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: And we stan Mavis finally being able to rest, Anyways Natsu & Gray & Lucy are a married triple, Brief discussion of death btw they're in the middle of a war, F/M, He complains about how pretty Natsu and Lucy are, M/M, Multi, Sorry Gray and Juvia are Bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:42:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23366395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/siderokardias/pseuds/siderokardias
Summary: War takes you to very strange places, Gray muses. Sometimes quaint parks in his hometown are those places. He’s not complaining, though.Or; the END book rewriting scene but found families find time to be cheesy even in the middle of war.
Relationships: (briefly mentioned), Gray Fullbuster & Juvia Lockser, Gray Fullbuster/Lucy Heartfilia, Jellal Fernandes/Erza Scarlet, Natsu Dragneel/Gray Fullbuster, Natsu Dragneel/Gray Fullbuster/Lucy Heartfilia, Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58





	One smile like that

**Author's Note:**

> So I finished the Fairy Tail anime and it was very tender and filled with subtextual queeroticism and found families. Expect many fics about that coming soon (more or less) xoxo.
> 
> Edit: sorry, but please don't listen to that last line or assume that it encompasses up until 2022. (·.·u)

_His eyes are quite green, as if from too much looking at the wood. There are some eyes that can eat you._

–Angela Carter, from The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories; The Erl-King.

_Don’t frighten me. I am like a little child now. I can be frightened to death by one smile like that._

— Fyodor Dostoevksy, from Demons.

_War takes you to very strange places,_ Gray muses _. S_ ometimes quaint parks in his hometown are those places. He’s not complaining, though. He has enough horrible memories for a lifetime. Of course, he would be enjoying the moment a lot more if half of his guildmates and friends weren’t currently fighting for their lives, but oh, well. _Natsu is the one_ _we can take care of right now._

The rings of demonic script float around him, hovering in perfect circles that interlock with a hum of power. The symbols Lucy has had to replace are easily recognizable, pulsing golden in a way he can only describe as _tender_. END’s book is creeping him out, the open pages rippling with magic best forgotten. Well, that and the easiness with which Lucy is rewriting it. She looks like an ancient work of art like this, her skin glowing.

Gray wishes he could close his eyes and pretend he was in a picnic, the smoke heavy on the air dismissed as Natsu burning some barbecue. _I’d kill for something homemade right now_.

Lucy gasps, the sound stopping in the middle as if cleaved through.

“Lucy!” He turns toward her, the new scar on his side pulling. Lava-like patterns weave through her right side; she is still as the grave.

“Something is… happening to her,” Happy says. _You don’t say_ , thinks Gray, momentarily tempted to snap at him, but Lucy’s body jerks like a puppet yanked by its strings. The light quill falls from her hand without a sound – her scream drowns it out. Happy takes off half-a-second before Gray, the time it takes him to scramble to his feet.

“Lucy!” He roars, falling to his knees beside her. The impact scraps around three layers of skin from his knees, but he can’t bring himself to care. Lucy’s hugging herself, curled and heaving as if she were in the middle of a panic attack. _Okay, we’ve been here_ _before_.

“Snap out of it!” His hand goes between her shoulder blades, where it fits effortlessly, automatically. That’s the way they’ve learnt to do it, to be an anchor to reality when dissociation takes over.

“Ow!” Lucy’s skin is blistering. Her body is smoking, _literally_. Gray notices Happy standing a couple of steps back, his blackened paws stretched toward her. _Of course_. Lucy has always been warmer than regular humans, but Happy lives with her. He would know the difference between that and cooking from the inside out.

Sweat trickles down her face and body, going as far as to soak the ground around her. _She is going to dehydrate at this rate_.

“Something inside me… is burning.” Her voice is fizzing like water pouring over burning coals.

“Natsu’s fire.” Happy seems transfixed, as if he were in a dream gone wrong, trying to wake up through sheer will alone.

“His fire as a demon.” Gray is momentarily surprised at how snappish his voice sounds, but the nuance is crucial. Natsu, as rash and witless as he can be, would die before hurting Lucy in any sort of way.

“But I can also use this… as a clue,” her voice is laboured and Gray wants to look at her in the eye and beg her to stop. But he won’t, because Lucy is one of the smartest people he’s ever met and if she says jump he’ll ask how high. And because it’s not only Lucy hanging on this, Natsu’s somewhere fighting like the wonderful, crazy bastard he is. “If I follow this power I might –” She gasps, rough and dry.

“You might be able to rewrite the demon inside of Natsu.” Happy wrings his hands like the old women in the Kardia services, with the ramrod posture of the faithful. He blinks, and his voice wavers. “But if you do that, you’ll –”

Lucy shakes her head, doesn’t let him say the words out loud. In their line of work, it’s too much like an incantation, like summoning disaster.

“I’ll be fine.” _There goes Lucky Lucy Heartfilia again._ Foolhardy optimistic to the point of defiance despite her remaining skin being redder than Erza’s hair and already starting to peel.

The crack of ice breaking on Gray’s hand is his way of backing her up, the blizzard’s howl all but a declaration of intentions. He can feel the warmth of her just brushing his skin – too much, not enough. Happy shivers and takes a step back. Lucy sighs, the same sound she makes when they enter Magnolia after a job. The sound of being not quite home, but close enough.

“That feels better.” Lucy turns to look at him with eyes sparkling from the fire magic. She’s covered in scratches and soot; she might as well be one of the most beautiful things he’s ever seen. Pride flares up in his chest. _Gods_ , Gray wishes Natsu was here, watching her, instead of fighting his old-brother-cum-madman.

“Let’s save Natsu. Together.” Happy nods, burnt paws still wrapped around himself.

“Yeah.” Lucy darts forward, pushing his hair back with her left hand to drop a kiss on his forehead. She is mindful of her own incandescent skin, a wrong touch could burn him. Gray’s mind goes fuzzy for a moment before her laugh brings him back.

“Oi! I kind of need concentration right now,” he says, frowning with mock indignation. He is so fond of her the feeling might crack his ribs from the inside if he tries to keep it bottled.

“Sorry,” she answers, her mouth pressed in the way that means she’s not sorry at all, “but there’s no way I’m not doing that… just in case.” Gray nods gravely, determined not to step on the trail of that silence.

“When this is over, we’re going out to eat.” He licks his lips self-consciously. It’s not the moment, not the way to ask this, but this whole situation shouldn’t be happening in the first place, so. “The three of us, I mean. Flamehead is going to be as hungry as a small army.” Lucy’s mouth forms a small _o_ , her hand going up to cover it. _Shit_. That must have come out wrong somehow, ‘cause that’s all he does, messing up and never saying the right thing. Maybe she would rather go eat just with Natsu, or not go out at all, or she’d rather not think about that now. There are studies on how element mages change to attune to their element; he supposes that must be correct. He always goes straight to the bone.

“It’s a date.”

She’s turning around again, one of the ends of her ponytails hitting his chest. She keeps working, changing the symbols, rewriting so fast if he didn’t know her he’d believe she was doing it on a whim. The fire keeps expanding, cutting fiery swathes across her ribcage. Gray can only watch and pray that his ice and her strength last enough. If anything happens to Natsu, they are going to make sure Zeref regrets it. Thoroughly.

Lucy gives the last touch to the floating symbols and opens the book, flipping through the pages so fast he can’t even look at them without feeling dizzy. Her right hand is all fire now, the pink guild mark no longer visible. _She summons her spirits with this hand_ , he thinks nonsensically. _If there are any lasting consequences to this…_ Then Lucy would learn to summon with her left hand, the tip of her nose, a glare. The stars themselves would come down from the sky to do her bidding. He has to do his part.

“I trust you,” he whispers. The quill slashes faster. Gray fears his eyes are going to roll out of his head if he focuses on it for longer than two seconds. He settles for looking at Lucy’s face instead. She seems submerged in a pool, out of time and space. In these moments she ascends to another plane of existence where all is serene and under her control.

He stays like that, silently willing all his power onto her until the flurry of paper on the edge of his vision stops. She’s on the last page. Lucy changes the third-to-last glyph, pausing for a moment before adding a whole sentence. The last period is a desperate stab of the quill at the same time fire laces around Lucy’s shoulder. The ropes of script begin turning on themselves and spiral right back into END’s book. The volume closes in on itself with a _thump_ that seems too soft for such a thing.

“Has the writing just… gone back into the book.” Happy phrases it almost as a question, as if he isn’t sure of whether he can believe his eyes.

“I’ve done all that I can,” Lucy answers, her voice stone weary. “I wrote our memories into it.”

“Natsu – our Natsu – isn’t some demon.” Gray rubs Happy’s back with his free hand. Thank the gods Happy is there to remind them of what matters. He is right. Natsu is messy eating with a gallon of hot sauce on top, brawling for the stupidest reasons, never combing his hair, warmth. So much it makes Gray want to crack him open so he _stops_ burning, it makes him want to see whether it would be so bad, not being cold and cut off all of the time. Natsu is a grin like a slice of apple, his earnest heart and how he wears it on his sleeve shamelessly. It’s _Natsu_ and fuck if Gray cares about his birth circumstances. He knows who Natsu’s family is.

Lucy puts the quill on the ground with a gentle hand and breathes out. A second later she falls back.

“Lucy!” Luckily, Gray doesn’t even have to move to catch her, just curls his arm around her and props her against his chest. They’ve done all they can to ensure Natsu won’t spontaneously combust while fighting Zeref. Their job is over. “You messed with a demon’s book,” he whispers to her. _Brave, wonderful Lucy_. “I knew it’d be risky, but…” He trails off with a shake of his head.

The crossing over to Demon Slayer mode comes easy after a whole year of practising. Ice sweeps through his veins and holds his hair up in place. Power paints his arm and chest in whorls of black frostbite.

“Now it’s my turn. I’ll use my demon-slaying powers to clear it out of you.” He has her. He can take care of this, he can finally do something. Lucy’s skin is red-iron hot under his hands, but it’s not Natsu. It doesn’t have the unconquerable drive of the Dragon Slayer; thus, it’s no match for him right now.

The first touch of the iridescent ice makes the tendrils shriek; he smiles and keeps attacking them until they evaporate out of existence. Lucy coughs back into conscious. Gray drops the transformation immediately, knowing human flesh and sub-zero temperatures don’t mix very well.

“Lucy…” Happy calls out tentatively – both of them have learnt not to hope so easily.

“Are you okay?” Gray brushes her sweat-slicked bangs with a shaking hand. She opens her eyes slowly, but they are as bright as ever.

“Thank you, Gray!” He barely has the time to utter _you’re welcome_ before he gets an armful of Lucy and her almost excessive warmth. He feels Happy squeezing his way into the hug and splays his free hand on his back, pressing the little Exceed against his side.

“Look!” Happy says. “The book is disappearing.” The copperplate letters on the cover are fading away into an orange and green spark shower. “Does that mean…?!” Lucy is shaking her head, hands on her mouth. Gray takes one of them in his and clutches it to his chest.

“We beat Zeref.”

The next thing Gray feels is Lucy’s mouth crashing against his and her fingers in his hair, making up for the lack of coordination with enthusiasm. He kisses her back, his eyes pricking with _debris_ , goddamnit, it’s debris – he’s not about to become a sap.

“Get a room, you two! Gods, I don’t want to think about how this is gonna be when Natsu gets back.” Lucy sticks her tongue out at him; Gray takes advantage of the moment to press a kiss to the spot beneath her ear.

“May I remind you that the three – four of us just almost died? Gray, stop distracting me!” He drapes his arms around her neck, pressing her back against his chest.

“It is now or never, right?”

“Yeah,” she says. “Gods, Juvia is gonna tease you for ages when she finds out.” Lucy chuckles.

“Maybe, and just maybe, I deserve every single bit of it.” She rests her head on his shoulder. They watch the last remains of the book fizzle out into the air.

“I think…” She yawns so wide he can almost see her tonsils. “I think I am going to power nap right now.”

“That’s the best thing I’ve heard in a really long time.” Lucy takes the bench and Gray the grassy patch. The adrenaline of the last hours leaves his system. Sleep comes to him like a sledgehammer to the head. He dreams of nothing.

When he wakes up, it is to Happy tugging on his hair. Lucy sits criss-cross behind him, sporting a rather spectacular case of bedhead.

“What’s gotten into you two? Weren’t we taking a breather?” Happy groans.

“Gray, can you _please_ try to feel who’s coming?” Gray cocks his head at that, closing his eyes as if he were straining to hear distant music. Magic sensing has never been one of his fortes – _Warm_.

A few moments later a blurry figure emerges from the focused magic smog around Magnolia’s centre. A familiar scarf trails him like a banner, pink hair comes into view.

“Natsu!” Gray’s voice sounds louder than Lucy’s. _That’s…embarrassing_. But he doesn’t care if Natsu has heard him and his smile has grown even wider. He’s so glad to see the imbecile alive he could swoon like the proverbial damsel in a romance book. _Juvia is gonna have a field day with this_.

“Yo, you three! Sorry it took me so long to hand Zeref his ass.” Happy has thrown himself against Natsu before he’s closed his mouth, trying to wrap his arms around the Dragon Slayer’s chest. Natsu holds on tight, checking him for injuries before turning to look at Gray and Lucy.

Gray thinks his mouth is dry which shouldn’t be possible, ice powers and whatnot, but yeah. Natsu has that effect on people. Well, Natsu has that effect on him and he assumes everyone feels the same way because come on. Have you seen him? Lucy breaks the silence.

“Is it done, then?” Natsu holds his arm out. It is scalier than what it used to be, but it looks more distinctively draconian than demonic.

“Yeah, couldn’t very well show up here if I hadn’t.” He turns back for a moment, scratches his head with one long claw. “I think the First passed away.”

“Master Vermilion? Dead?” Lucy holds onto his arm tighter. Gray rubs her back comfortingly, even if the ground has just opened up under his feet. Mavis has been, in many ways, the thing that has helped them stay together, the leader that has helped them beat the odds at every possible opportunity, the very, well, _the spirit_ of their guild.

“I think she was relieved, y’ know? To rest at last.” Natsu’s smile is small but knowing. Gray thinks of Ur’s Histoire, of meeting with Lyon once again. Mavis Vermilion had been a person before anything else, a woman who had gone through far too many things. She had always lived as the Fairy Tactitian, at constant war.

“I hope so.” Grief lightens around them, going from shroud to shawl.

“So,” Happy says after a long silence, “do you know Gray offered to invite both Lucy and you to lunch?”

“I asked Miss Heartfilia, I never said I was paying for the whole thing!” Natsu laughs, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“You asked _her_ out. What about poor little me?” Gray looks at him in the eyes, steeling himself for something that has been brewing for around two years.

“Will you go out with Lucy and I, Dragneel?” Natsu curls his hand around Gray’s neck, pulling him close enough to rest their foreheads together. Natsu’s eyes are a very deep green, he realizes, the colour of plants growing back after a forest fire.

“Of course I will, Fullbuster.” Then Natsu is closing his eyes and opening his mouth – bumping their noses because he forgot to turn his head. Gray snorts, even if that hurts his ribs a little. Natsu looks down where Gray assumes Happy must be. He’s too fascinated by the line of the other man’s jaw to confirm that.

“Not one word about this, cat.” He kisses Gray, a chaste brush of their lips both disappointing and unbearably cute. “Sorry, mate, I’m too tired for some proper…how do your kinky books call it, Lucy, ravishing?” Lucy smacks his arm so hard it hurts _Gray_.

“Those are _Erza’s_!” Gray didn’t need to hear that, but he is _so_ making a mental note to remember he has to bring it back up later, preferably when Jellal is in the vicinity. Natsu puts an arm around Lucy’s shoulders, the other curling around Gray’s waist. Happy jumps on Lucy’s back with a derisive scoff.

“As I said, absolutely gross!” Gray and Lucy shush him, Natsu throws his head back with a howl of laughter.

_This is happiness_ , Gray thinks, trying to hold on as tight as possible.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure whether I should make all these hypothetical short Alvarez-Empire-arc fics into a single, multi-chaptered work or publish several works.
> 
> Anyways, I hope y'all like it. Stay safe during the pandemic, we'll get through this ♥♥♥


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